It's the Gobble-Gobble Turrkeee!

Happy be-lated Thanksgiving! We took our first long road trip as a family for the holiday. A little over 10 hours in the car with a 2 year old and a 1 year old and no issues! I say that's a win! Me, Peter, Nicholas, my sister Megan, her husband Chris, and my nephew Joey borrowed our aunt's Suburban and drove down to my dad's in North Carolina. We left at 9:00pm (the boy's bedtime) Wednesday night.  It sucked driving at night, but it was worth the 2 sleeping boys.

In true Bruno-Thanksgiving fashion there was too much food and not enough alcohol. ;) My father has become quite the chef. He watches way too much Food Network and Cooking Channel. Everything was scheduled out, including the mimosa breaks. After the parade and a scattering of naps we took some family pictures and got ready to stuff our faces.

The next day we drove down to Charlotte... the Speedway to be exact. The boys (Peter, Chris and my dad) took turns driving on the racetrack in my dad's Tundra with Joey in tow. You couldn't scrape the smiles off their faces. Unfortunately they had the stands decorated for their Christmas light show so we couldn't watch, but there were plenty of iphone videos to go around. I won "Parent of the Year" that day when I left the house with only a few diapers, a barely remembered Nicholas, and no bottle or food. Thank God Megan had a yogurt in Joey's bag and there was a Babies R Us near by to get a sippy cup. My head must have still been clouded with turkey and fixins.

After a quick trip to the Childress Vineyards for some vino Saturday, we packed up and left at 9:00 that night (again, no issues!). It was a short trip but a good time. Sunday was pretty much a wash since we were all exhausted but we did have to make one stop to my mom's. Needless to say, the stay wasn't long. Just enough for family pictures and some pizza.

Now, we're in Christmas mode... making our list and checking it twice. This weekend is decorating time! I hope Nicholas is kind to my tree, i'm slightly very OCD when it comes to my tree.

A year...

A year ago yesterday, this was my story.  Today, I have a one year old walking, babbling and giggling love of my life.

Happy First Birthday (a day late) Nicholas!!

Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Long Island has pissed off the weather Gods...

So a week after Hurricane Sandy.... SNOW!  We were only supposed to get light rain and ended up with 6" of slushy white stuff.

Monday, October 29th, the south shore of Long Island was decimated during Super Storm (Hurricane) Sandy.  Sandy was 1000 miles wide with winds up to 80 miles per hour and crept up the coast at a snails pace.  It hit during a full moon and lasted during 4 high tide cycles.  Our south shore beaches are gone.  As well as the dunes that protect Ocean Parkway from the ocean.  My home town of Lindenhurst was wiped out south of Montauk Highway.  So many homes were flooded, burned due to electrical fires, lower levels wiped out, or completely destroyed.  Ninety percent of Long Island lost power and about 10% are still without it.  And now 10% more lost power (again or for the first time - including our friends Glenn and Melissa) after winter storm Athena.  Yup, they named the nor'easter.  And let's not forget about the gas shortage. Lines 2 hours long at gas stations are now the norm.  This afternoon they instated the odd-even gas days to start tomorrow am.  The lines are getting shorter as things even out, but it's still not back to "normal".  Who knows when that will be.

LIPA is working their asses off trying to get power back up but people's patience is wearing thin and no one is giving a straight answer when it comes to timing.  The main issue is the flooded homes.  These homes need to be inspected before the neighborhood can get powered back up.  People that are only without power need to put things in perspective and think of those who lost everything.  People complaining about waiting on two-hour lines for gas need to be thankful for the fact that their car is still drive-able and not filled with sand, mud, or water.

Peter and I were EXTREMELY lucky and thank God everyday for sparing us. We're very grateful! We only lost phone/cable/internet (FiOS).  And we only lost it because a tree took out our wire.  A section of our vinyl fence was blown out and we lost a tree in the front.  It seems as if our block was lucky and is in our own bubble.  However Peter's school has been closed since the Hurricane.  Students were supposed to return today but because of the snow, school was closed.  Nicholas' daycare didn't fare well at all.  There was 3 feet of water inside and they lost everything.  Luckily another center was able to take in the kids temporarily.  I've been back to work for a week now (since November 1st). We still don't have heat, but we can function.

Fast forward a week and two days (Wednesday, November 7th) and we get slammed with a nor'easter that was only supposed to give us light rain in Nassau County with the eastern end of Suffolk County getting heavy rain and 50 mile per hour wind gusts.  Well just like Mitt Romney it flip-flopped.  Sorry I couldn't resist. ;)  The east end still had the high winds but just got a light rain/snow mix.  The other parts of the island averaged about 8" of wet snow.  Driving home from work was interesting last night.

Ahhh... what can we do to appease the weather Gods???

And with all this going on, in two weeks it'll be Thanksgiving then before you know it... Christmas!

I was almost reluctant to share this picture of our little shark on Halloween because of the setting (that stretch of sand isn't accessible right now), but I couldn't resist and his cuteness brightened everyone's day.  I hope it does the same for you...

Happy be-lated Halloween!!